Abstract

For a long time it was thought that there were only two ways of manufacturing diamonds: first, by growing the monocrystalls and second, by sintering diamond powder. The possibility of obtaining polycrystalline diamond and cubic boron nitride (ß BN) by any other means had not been considered. However, a new scientific direction in the synthesis of superhard materials was postulated as a result of the long-standing efforts of a group headed by Academician L. F. Vereschagin. These efforts resulted in obtaining polycrystalline diamonds and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride. By the use of corresponding thermodynamic parameters, we were able to obtain strong fine-grained diamonds and polycrystalline cubic boron nitride stones with the structure of a carbonado-type diamond (see Fig. 1).